Merops leschenaulti
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The chestnut-headed bee-eater (Merops leschenaulti), or bay-headed bee-eater, is a bird in the bee-eater family Meropidae. It breeds on the Indian subcontinent and adjoining regions, ranging from India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka across Southeast Asia to Indonesia.
This species, like other bee-eaters, is a richly coloured, slender bird. It is predominantly green, with blue on the rump and lower belly. Its face and throat are yellow with a black eye stripe, and the crown and nape are rich chestnut. The thin curved bill is black. Sexes are alike, but young birds are duller. It is 18–20 cm long and lacks the two elongated central tail feathers possessed by most of its relatives.
The chestnut-headed bee-eater was formally described in 1817 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot under the current binomial name Merops leschenaulti. He specified the locality as Java. This was an error as this species does not occur there, and the locality has been designated as Sri Lanka. The specific epithet was chosen to honour the French naturalist and collector Jean-Baptiste Leschenault de La Tour who had brought Vieillot's specimen to France.
Three subspecies are recognised: M... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bali Barat National Park | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 2 | Royal Bardia National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 3 | Khao Yai National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 4 | Kaziranga National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Yala National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 6 | Wilpattu National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 7 | Periyar National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 8 | Chitwan National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 9 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 10 | Royal Manas National Park | 🇧🇹 Bhutan | |
| 11 | Manas National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 12 | Udawalawe National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 13 | Jim Corbett National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 14 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 15 | Cat Tien National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 16 | Bandipur National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 17 | Khao Sok National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 18 | Doi Inthanon National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand | |
| 19 | Eravikulam National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 20 | Minneriya National Park | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka | |
| 21 | Mudumalai National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 22 | Sinharaja Forest Reserve | 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thrissur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Dehradun | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Kozhikode | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Kathmandu | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 5 | Guwahati | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Thiruvananthapuram | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Denpasar | 🇮🇩 Indonesia | |
| 8 | Dhaka | 🇧🇩 Bangladesh | |
| 9 | Ponnani | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Coimbatore | 🇮🇳 India |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut-headed Bee-eater sighting in Khao Yai National Park on a given day, based on 1,012 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 31st most-seen of the 278 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February–March and December
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut-headed Bee-eater in Khao Yai National Park on a given day, against about 10% in July–August and October, the lowest months. Those are among Khao Yai National Park's driest months, with about 50 mm of rain a month against 330 mm in September.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Chestnut-headed Bee-eater sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 22
Of the 22 parks where we can rate Chestnut-headed Bee-eater sightings, Khao Yai National Park ranks 3rd at about 40%. The best odds are in Bali Barat National Park (Indonesia, about 50%) and Royal Bardia National Park (Nepal, about 40%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Chestnut-headed Bee-eater is recorded against all the birds logged in Khao Yai National Park (1,012 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
